The Magic of Musical Places Series Introduction

[00:00:00] Ciyadh: Hello, this is Musically Cogitating. A show asking and answering important questions about music, the people who make it and about how all of that continues to impact the way that you and I go throughout our everyday lives. If this is your first time, or if you've listened to every episode of this show so far welcome.

[00:00:35] I'm your host Ciyadh Wells. Thank you so much for joining me here today. If you could go ahead and use the link in the show notes to leave a review for this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or Podchasers, I would really appreciate it. And that would be really amazing. Also check the show notes for any relevant links.

[00:00:58] Anything that I [00:01:00] happen to mention in today's episode, I will also include a link to the transcript on the website. You may or may not know this about me, but I think that music is magical truly. And it's kind of funny that after all of these years of making and more importantly consuming music, that I am still really an awe by the fact that music, that this thing.

[00:01:31] Continues to exist. It impacts our lives. Obviously this entire podcast is about that, but it impacts the way that we live our lives. It accompanies so many, hopefully mostly positive moments in our lives, but sometimes negative moments as well. And as we say, it is the soundtrack to our lives, music accompanies the way that we.

[00:01:57] Go about the world and the way that we occupy [00:02:00] the world and all of these spaces. And the way that music has come to be made is still a mystery to me, even though I still, I continue to make music and it's something that I really, really enjoy doing. But as much as I know about how music is made and that process, I want to explore where

[00:02:26] Music is made. And you might say that yes, music is made all around us and that's true, but music is also made in places and those places are sometimes really special. So that's why I'm going to take the next several episodes to explore and talk about quote, you know, the magic of musical places to you, musical places are the places where we make and or consume music.

[00:02:58] So where we enjoy music, where we [00:03:00] learn music, where we come to understand it, where, where we go to be with music. I think it's important for us to take over books and times at the where instead of the, how or the why, because, you know, there's so much out there. About the why or the, how music is made, but I don't think there's a lot out there about where the music is made.

[00:03:26] I don't know that there's a lot out there talking about the places that we go when music inspires us or where we go after we are inspired to make music and. Where do we go to discover music? So I'm going to talk about each of those places that I believe are really magical and important to the way that we understand and continue to grow in our relationship with music.

[00:03:58] So here are the places [00:04:00] that I am going to talk about over the next several episodes. The first one would be of course, music store. So this is a place where we go to buy music. Yes, there are people like me who still buy music and we're seeing a bit of a, of a rebirth, a resurgence in these types of places in our communities.

[00:04:25] And so I want to talk about that. I want to talk about why that's important. I want to talk about the magic that I experience when I walk into a music store and I've been doing. I've been going to music stores for such, such a long time. And I'll tell many stories about that, but doesn't mean that's a magical place for me, a record store, you know, places that sell instruments, music, retailers, those are, those are magical places for me.

[00:04:53] And I want to talk about that. So before I get off too much, the first one is going to be about musical. [00:05:00] The, the next place that I talk about, uh, are what I'm categorizing as sacred spaces. And I think of this, particularly for myself as a person of faith as. At church, but this could be any sort of place that in, in our cultures, maybe that we see us sacred and the beginning of music, history begins largely in sacred spaces and with sacred music.

[00:05:26] And so I won't dig too, too deeply into the history of, of music, but I did want to acknowledge that that is where a lot of our music history comes from. And for me, and for some people. That is an important part of. Music and where it's made and how we experienced and consume it. So sacred spaces next, I will talk about nature and flesh outside.

[00:05:53] So this is really broad, but I think a lot of times Nate music happens in nature. It [00:06:00] happens outside and we need to talk about that because that's all, that's all around us more than any of these other places, you know, we have nature. We have outside. That's where we experienced a lot of things. Next I have transportation.

[00:06:16] Cars. So you might be listening to this podcast in a car, but I think we, we listen to so much music when we are on transportation and transportation. When we are commuting, when we are going to, and from somewhere, I have so many of these musical, these magical musical experiences, of course, when, when I'm in a car or when I was growing up, I remember listening to music in the car and.

[00:06:45] Yeah, I want to talk about that. Of course, that then goes into the places where we typically go to consume and to be entertained by music, which of course will be music venues. So concert halls, [00:07:00] spaces like that is pretty obvious. I want to talk about the living room as a magical place where music has made.

[00:07:07] So sometimes in our living rooms with where we make music with family, that's where we just sit and listen to music. That there is magic that happens there that maybe we don't always pay a lot of attention to, but it's really, really special. One of these deep cuts, as I always like to say, or, or in this case, maybe a B side.

[00:07:31] Musical libraries. That's one of the next episodes that I'll do. And music libraries are really interesting places. And I wish more people knew about them. They don't really exist outside of universities and college campuses and places like that. Although yes, public libraries do have music. So in that way, You know, you can have musical libraries within, you know, larger public libraries, but I want to talk about specifically [00:08:00] music libraries, what you find there, why they are important and yes, again, the magic that they hold.

[00:08:08] This one is specific. This next one and is practice rooms slash studios. So for me, the practice room is. Yes, wherever I'm practicing, but there's something there's a, there's a juju when you go into a music building and arts building a pro, and you're supposed to go into a practice room, you're supposed to practice, right.

[00:08:35] And we're talking about practice. You go in there and you want to practice. Okay. I will stop with the practice meme thing, but practice rooms are places where a lot of music happens. And so I want to talk about that. Cause I got a lot of feelings about practice rooms. Cause I spent a lot of time in a lot of practice rooms.

[00:08:58] So [00:09:00] lastly, I want to talk about the magic of the sort of virtual online space, where we make music and where it allows us to be with people. I think of live streams and. Things like that. That's one of the newer musical spaces. Where we find ourselves often occupying. And I think it's important to talk about because I think that is only going to continue in a positive way, moving forward.

[00:09:29] So over the next several episodes, I'm going to explore the magic of each of these musical places, I'm going to sprinkle in some personal stories and antidotes about how I find these places important to me as an artist, but also important to me as a listener, as a connoisseur, as just someone who really, really likes music and is inspired to think about music and within the context of [00:10:00] each of these places.

[00:10:02] There you go. This week's music recommendation is The Transformation Suite by Samora Pinderhughes. And I cannot recommend this enough. It's an entire album. I would just press play as always you, I recommend that you do choose to, they just press play and you let it play from the beginning of the album to the end, because it's really, it's really one of those things you want to listen to.

[00:10:29] Check us out on social media. That's Twitter and Instagram. And if you're still on Facebook sure. And the website, you can sign up for the newsletter as well, and you can always support the show in various ways as outlined in the show notes. So that's all I have for you today.

[00:10:54] I will be back soon with. A visit to our first [00:11:00] magical musical place until then.